My husband is a gadget fanatic. He’s already on his second folding smartphone — a Galaxy Z Flip7 — after having a Motorola Razr when it first got here out. I’m extra of a “persuade me” sort of gadget lover. If I see a motive to get excited, I’m in. In any other case, I’ll stick to what I’ve obtained till I’ve a motive to improve. I nonetheless keep in mind when Apple got here out with Contact ID to finish password fatigue. I purchased one instantly.
I’ve been within the Apple ecosystem for greater than a decade as a result of my work laptop is a Mac and having my telephone and watch all work collectively is each sensible and useful. Sure, that’s the definition of the Apple moat. However I wouldn’t take into account myself a fangirl. For the report, my private laptop — that means the one I purchased myself for non-job-related makes use of — is an HP Spectre on Home windows. And I adore it.
So, I’m nonetheless utilizing an iPhone 13. As a lot as I like how hubby’s telephone suits so properly in a pocket, I favor practicality over novelty. However my telephone’s battery and touchscreen are growing older, and it doesn’t have a chip highly effective sufficient to run the promised Apple Intelligence AI future. So it’s time for an improve.
Right this moment, I used to be inside a heartbeat of getting ready to preorder the brand new iPhone Air. It seemed like the perfect of all worlds to me: larger display but sufficiently small to slot in my small hand, greatest chip, and solely $200 greater than a 17, however nonetheless cheaper than a Professional. I’ve by no means been a Professional person. I don’t movie Hollywood-esque films and don’t have any social media-creator hobbies, so I’ve at all times opted for the higher worth.
However as I dive into the specs, the iPhone 17 appears to be like like a greater deal.
Within the Air’s favor, it has a 6.5-inch display, in comparison with the 17’s 6.3-inch, but is lighter to carry. It additionally has the A19 Professional chip, fairly than the A19 chip. However oddly, this isn’t the identical Professional chip that’s within the Professional telephone. It has a 6-core CPU with a 5-core GPU. That’s just like the A19 within the 17. (The Professional mannequin has a 6-core CPU and 6-core GPU.)
The 17 beats the Air on battery life, too, promising 30 hours of video playtime versus the Air’s 27 hours, in keeping with Apple. And whereas one other $99 will purchase a battery pack for the Air, bringing battery life as much as 40 hours, that pack defeats the aim of a lighter, thinner telephone.
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The Air is utilizing a brand new and attention-grabbing computational images digicam, that means digicam options powered by software program. This enables a single lens to behave like a number of lenses — together with a pleasant new characteristic that permits simultaneous entrance and rear digicam photographs. That’s good for filming reactions to the world and can be enjoyable to personal! However the Air lacks the 48-megapixel Fusion Extremely Broad lens the 17 has.
The Air’s storage choices are much better — as much as 1TB — however for a worth. The 1T possibility prices $1,400, which makes it solely $100 lower than a 1T storage on a Professional, at $1,500.
All in all, as a lot as I wish to love the larger-screen, lighter Air, if I had been to deal with myself and get a higher-end telephone, I’d simply go forward and purchase a Professional.
If the Air turns into Apple’s folding telephone, as some suspect, I’ll ditch my 17 for a shocking folding iPhone at that time. Till then, for normal Joe customers like me, the 17 nonetheless looks like a greater deal.